The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of a mandarin tree, botanically known as Citrus deliciosa Ten., of the Rutaceae Family, and hereinafter referred to by the variety denomination ‘ODEM’.
The new Citrus deliciosa Ten. variety is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventors, Nir Carmi, Hanna Neuman-Leshem, Ahuva Frydman-Shani, Pinchas Spiegel-Roy, Aliza Vardi, Avraham Elhanati, Yosef Yaniv, Kanonich Yeoshua, and Ahuva Daos, in the Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel. The objective of the breeding program was to develop a new easy peeling, mid-season ripening mandarin variety, with high quality flavor.
The new Citrus deliciosa Ten. variety originated from a mutation induced by irradiation, in 1996, of a seedling which resulted from a cross made by the inventors in 1985 in the Volcani Center. The female or seed parent is the Citrus deliciosa Ten. designated ‘ORAH’ (unpatented). The male or pollen parent is the Citrus deliciosa Ten. designated ‘SHANI’ (patented, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,634). The new Citrus deliciosa Ten. ‘ODEM’, after irradiation, was observed and further selected, by the inventors, in a controlled environment in 2005 in The Volcani Center.
Asexual propagation of the new Citrus deliciosa Ten. variety ‘ODEM’ by grafting onto ‘Troyer’ citrange—Citrus sinensis (L.) Osb.×Poncirus trifoliata L. (unpatented) was first performed in April 1996 in the Volcani Center, and has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new variety are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual propagation. The new variety propagates true-to-type.